What to do when your entire squad leaves the country without you.
~a How-To and a Chill-Out~
1. Awake at 5:30am to the sound of monks on megaphones strolling past your hostel window. Promptly forget about sleeping in. Breath. Nothing happens outside God’s sight and power. He’s got you and has a plan for the day.
2. Put on your ‘Dont Belong To No City’ shirt. Because you don’t belong to any city or nation in this world. You belong to the Kingdom and that exists anywhere you are and bring Him into.
3. Try not to watch the clock and be sad at the very minute your family, friends, team and church are boarding a plane while your own seat sits sad, cold and empty. Just pray someone is blessed by the ability to stretch out a bit.
4. Walk to the ATM. Wait in 4 sporadic lines and applaud with the crowd of friendly burmese people you’ve been waiting with for one of the temperamental machines to finally give out money.
5. Stop and get that street food you were eyeing earlier. Make friends with the sweet lady working there and order one of each.
6. Find a coffee shop in an half constructed mall and catch up on your expense reports, start a blog, let Holy Spirit completely blow your mind through revelations He gives you while reading the Word. Worship in public. You’re already that weird white girl here so what’s a few more stares…
7. Pray for your squad. Be reminded of what it looks like to lead from behind, to serve from a distance and to love a group people straight back into the hands of the One who loved them first. Let God remind you that they don’t really need you – they need Him.
8. Message your family and friends back home.
9. Click through on that link ‘How to overstay your visa in Myanmar’ and become familiar with the most efficient and economical ways to break the law.
10. Bust out that map you picked up yesterday and lead your own walking tour of local craft markets! Walk for hours. Get caught in the rain. Send a postcard to your best friend back home. Eat fried cheese. Pet a street cat. Maneuver around some random protest at the local pagoda.
11. Eat more amazing street food for dinner with your adventure pal!
12. Fill out your daily gratitude list and enjoy the silence that comes from having your own room. It’s a silence you haven’t experienced in 6 months.
13. Play loud music because the silence got boring after like 4 and a half minutes.
14. Thank the Lord for being good. Brainstorm fun ideas to do the next day or two because you have no idea how long you’ll end up living life in Yangon, Myanmar.
**A bit of background, my squadmate had an issue getting her visa to fly into India and we didn’t know about the problem until the day we were supposed to fly out! Because she couldn’t be in the country alone, as her friend and a squadleader (convenient) I stayed with her and had an extra 24 hours in Yangon which is a pretty amazing city btw!**
Part II
1. Eat delicious ice cream together and share a mind-blowing conversation about God being the Creator of Time itself so if he wanted to break the rules of it, of course He could.
2. Head back to the hostel and receive a miraculous email from the Indian Embassy (on a Saturday night) with her approved visa! Forward the good news to the AIM office in the USA!
3. Go to sleep with literally zero idea what will happen the next day. none.
4. Wake up and enjoy free breakfast at the friendly hostel and then go visit the lady selling mysterious but delicious street food you met yesterday! Yay friends!
5. Receive new flight information and have 1 hour to pack and head to the airport! Remember and enjoy the simplicity, anonymity, and relative quiet of traveling with one other person instead of 40. Truly let your introvert self soak up and enjoy the empty airplane experience.
6. Arrive in India and join up with the rest of your squad only 24 hours behind them!
“give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” 1 Thessalonians 5:18 Amen
